


Just Not For Long

by BlackFen



Series: Prompted Teslen Drabbles [1]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: 1880s, Angst/Comfort, F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Victorian era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 13:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3383366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackFen/pseuds/BlackFen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nikola and Helen argue over finding a cure for John. A quickly written ficlet set sometime after James discovers that John is the white chapel killer. "We could be immortals, just not for long" Tumblr Valentine's Day Teslen Prompt for electricrogue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Not For Long

“So you’re really going back to America?” Helen inquired, straightening her posture as she stepped from the doorway into his apartment. At her voice, Nikola rose from his seat at an armchair, regarding her with a hesitant stare while he set the paper he held on the desk. In the mid-morning sun, the heather green trench she wore steeled her eyes and suited her curls, and the tawny brown trim warmed her skin. His gaze wandered a little in appreciation.

Two pieces of luggage took up half of the space in the modest room. One, a trunk for trinkets and papers, occupied a small work-space juxtaposed to the window, the other a smaller case for the few suits he owned at the bottom of his bed. Moving toward the latter, he resumed folding.

“The five is no longer,” Nikola said carefully, matching two pairs of silk gloves finger to finger and folding them neatly away in his trunk, “We accomplished what we set out to study and, in pursuit of understanding, we have collected already a lifetime of notes to interpret.” The more he spoke, the richer his accent became, liquid rhotacism that swiveled in her ears.

“Now, we must know when to stop.”

“Stop what?" she demanded and stepped further into the room, closing the door in her wake, "Stop trying to understand what we created? To alter the brutality of the outcome?” Her hands were tightly clasped and her blue gaze roil with the thoughts she stifled, cutting a shock of incisions into his heart, so he looked away and abandoned his linens, settling a hand on his hip.

“Stop and attend to our specialties. In our respective fields, we have all learned something of great benefit to the world. Even John’s proclivities tell us something we could learn from, in time.”

“But you won’t help to cure him?”

“Now we get down to it," Nikola leered with a conscious smile. In tandem, he wheeled towards her with horrible grace, but she only locked her jaw, unblinking, and let his proximity stale as the wind of his motion tussled her curls. "What choice have I?“ he continued, “propriety alone legitimizes my decision, to say nothing of my personal feelings.”

“What have any of us to do with propriety,” she challenged, rounding on him in turn as he threw his head back and evaded her toward the window, ”or any other law of conduct subjected upon us by society?”

“Well, when my friends, even you, decide to chain me up and blame me for serial murders in a thinly veiled attempt to satisfy pre-existing sentiments of distrust, I observe what I can to repress my antipathy.”

“So you hate us,” she surmised doubtfully, scoffing when he rose his brows and cocked his head with an obstinate smirk. " Once bitten, twice shy, I’m afraid. “I suppose you forgot those times between doses when you cornered me in private and told me you were hungry. Was that supposed to garner your innocence? Even you, at the time, understood it was a necessary precaution.”

“Enough! James will oblige you. No doubt, he too has a mind to collaborate on a cure and with both of you urging, Mr. Invisible will go along with it,” he taunted, “You could do as little as smile and Nigel would help.”

“I should have known. You have always been derisive, but I never dreamed you were truly cold at heart.“

“Believe what you will. What does it matter? You abuse them both and will torture yourself. Besides, I would as soon cure that bastard as end his life. At the very least, concede that I have little to offer. ”

“All excuses for cowardice,” Helen brazened. She raised her head as she took a stringent breath, but to her surprise, while his mouth parted in reply, only silence consumed the room. Incrementally, the knots in her brow exhausted, and she smoothed a hand down her bodice, her head loitering with her thoughts as she interpreted the dead air between them.

"I‘ll never concede such a thing," she assuaged, "Please, Nikola, don’t forget the kindness we afforded you when we committed ourselves to stabilizing your condition. You benefit, and yet you will not endeavor to return this same kindness on the pretense that it is a cruelty in disguise.”

“You persist!” he balked, rubbing his head with pinched fingers, “Do me the small honor of accepting my decision,” he advised, backing up to counter the menacing step she took towards him, “I must return to my work. You would do well to return to yours”

“Do you not understand? This is part of my work, and to hell with yours if you see my proposal as some mere fancy brought on by forlorn love.”

She yelled it, and her curls shivered with the force of her anger. Intuitively, he reached for his handkerchief, but when he searched her eyes, he found that no tears glittered at her lids, only the circles beneath her eyes and the shadows on her face. Of all things, her strength softened him.

“Helen, you are in pain,” he contested as he took a seat on the edge of his bed, “and far be it from me to stifle what hopes you have left to comfort you, but I see no solution to John’s condition. I, who can envision with perfect clarity even the smallest, disassembled parts of my inventions, have no hypothesis for his cure.”

“I have a hypothesis. Several, in fact. What I don’t have is your faith in me,” she condemned, but she took a seat on the bed beside him, adjusting to fit in the small space, “A faith I counted on, but now I see how wrong I am to I rely on it.”

Their legs were touching, but he tried not to mind, moving his ascetic stare away from her own to rest on the the wood of the door.

“I owe you one last due: an apology, and despite my current indignation, I give it to you with all my heart," she said, lowering her head as her throat bobbed with a swallow, "I never wanted what happened; I only wanted desperately to learn that you were not lost to the effects of the blood. I remember feeling so relieved when James gave me the news that you were innocent," she hesitated, and he watched her bite her lip. "Of course, then we learned the whole truth," she straightened, "Still, I will not attempt to exonerate my actions, but I hope you know I care for you deeply, all of you,” she insisted, “and whatever hatred you hold for me, I hope it fades.”

She rose, crossed the room. The tardy hint of perfume that intimated the air where she had sat lingered off with her, and he realized that he missed it, his shoulders sinking with remorse just as she reached for the doorknob.

“Helen,” he murmured, staring at her back. "For all we disagree, I know how John must feel. His lunacy may not excuse his actions, but it belongs to the blood of my race," he sighed when she turned an ear towards him, then her body, leveling her gaze with his, "You remember when I first changed?" he asked, and though she did not respond, the memory filled her head, "You will only tempt him if you stay here," he said, “so come with me.”

“What?”

“To America. To New York.”

“That’s preposterous,” she hastened, “I-”

“I know, I know it,” Nikola interrupted, standing to join her, “but before you refuse, hear what I have to offer,” he compelled, “Faith for faith, your expertise for mine. If it is your understanding that we can cure your dear Montague as a collegiate, then I will help you see it done,”

“The catch?”

“Overseas,” he clarified, “In turn, you must come with me overseas, to help me recover my losses; to help the world change and to make history; carve my name in the halls as the greatest of inventors!”

“Nikola,”

“Think of it," he conducted, “with the talents we possess, we could do more than live forever: we could be remembered; we could be immortals! Just,” he hedged, “Not for long,” he nudged, “for a little while. I am to move back from Pittsburgh to New York. You could use the diversion for your health, and,” he trailed, “well, I do not ever want to go back to digging ditches.”

For the first time since she had entered, Helen took in the small room and the state of his luggage. He turned out of her way as she walked past him. Retracing her steps, she resumed her seat on the edge of the bed to look out toward the window. He smoothed his mustache, waiting a long, lockjaw moment before she finally answered.

“I agree.”

“But- wait. You agree?

“To go. America, remember?" she reminded, and he spied the minute flicker at a corner of her mouth, "I see you expected me to turn you down outright.”

“Well, when it comes to matters of health, you do not usually agree with me” he conceded.

“You are not often right,” she imparted gently, “In fact, I wish you were wrong," she teased and placed her hands on the edge of the bed, “Imagine, a sea voyage with a man who hates me for helping to prove his innocence, and all the while, he could have broken free with ease.”

Listening to the softness in her voice, and the teasing she offered in recompense, he dared to take a knee in front of her with a laugh that frisked his smile and gave weight to his eyes.

“And damage that fine Italian walnut boudoir chair? I could not hate you that much. ”

“I suspect not” she reassured, “I have already thought I may need to take my studies abroad. At the very least, I need to leave Oxford," she reasoned with a sigh, rubbing her brow with the back of her hand."If John doesn't know where I am, his frustration may make matters worst, and I fear putting him in pain as equally as I fear causing any more lost lives," she paused when Nikola rose, scooting his trunk further aside to make a comfortable space beside her, "but I want to give him back his life. Therefore, I must seek a solution, and I see no reason why I should not start my counsel with a trip to America. Though, If I recall correctly, the first time we traveled we were nearly thrown overboard.”  


“Ah, those glorious weeks in tight quarters aboard the mutinous S.S. City of Richmond.”

“Docking to port with the crew in terror.”

“And Helen Magnus at the helm. So, you will really come?” he marveled, laying down to soak in his elation, “Oh, Helen, I have not been this happy since Tomingaj,”

“Tomingaj?” she wondered, “Is the weather fine?”

“So fine as you?" he chuckled and shook his head, "There, after nine months of cholera, my father agreed to send me to engineering school," he recounted, "but only if I recovered, of course. Which I did, immediately."

“Of course.”

“And now you see, you are lucky I am even here to help you with all your bloody endeavors.”

"Oh, yes, the luckiest girl at Oxford” she joked and he instantly snorted, alighting her own, slow grin and a deep, lenitive sigh, “Thank you, friend,” She caught his hand. At the contact, his smile fell, and his eyes roved with hers, sharpening with rapture when she rubbed her thumb across his knuckles.

Nikola winked. She laid down beside him. Then, letting his fingers link between hers, she smiled.


End file.
